ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the diversity of the pharmaceutical industry is a strength which should if possible be maintained. The industry veteran Roy Vagelos has a rather different vision for the future, but again divides the industry into two camps: Looking ahead, Vagelos sees an epic battle between two contrasting visions of the industry. The sheer timescale of a pharmaceutical product's life demands strategies and planning quite different to those which may work well in other industries. According to Pharmaprojects Citeline, in 2012 seven of the Top 10 companies had fewer projects in their R&D pipelines than in 2011. Big pharma is still more interested in pursuing other, diversionary strategies and in short-term economies including in R&D. New products do not tend to get early or wide distribution in developing countries. So expansion there may not be particularly helpful in exploiting them.
